WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!
There are certain questions in life that you would seem are normal to everyday conversation, but the other day I realized that no matter how benign a question would seem, it isn't always the case. So I asked him, "so where do you live?" As soon as the question exited my lips everyone in the room shot me a look, breathed out and shook their heads. What have I done this time?
It was quickly explained to me that the person's home had been destroyed because of a faulty furnace. The person was without a home, thus the disgust from my family, as if I should have known. I felt so bad for this kid, but the fact is, how in the world was I suppose to know? How many people in a day do you ask, "where do you live?" and the answer is "nowhere!"
But the thing is, these days, I think that more and more people are answering, "nowhere." I think that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is moving farther and farther apart and is becoming more distinct.
Here in Jersey we have a very large Jewish population. In the Jewish culture there are Bat Mitzvah and Bar Mitzvahs. These are HUGE birthday-type parties that are celebrated when a child in the Jewish faith reaches the age of 13. I have been to one of these events and I could ONLY compare it to a wedding, a very lavish, country club, expensive wedding. How in the world these families afford these parties for each and every one of their kids is beyond me. I actually asked a Jewish mom the other day if they start a Bat Mitzvah savings account when the kid is born?!
I can't imagine shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a 13th birthday party, then college, then a wedding and all the other stuff in between! How do these people do it?
Then there are the kids that my children tell me about that don't have money for the shoes for sports, don't have money for the school t-shirt or all the other "extras" in life. I hear about the kids that are wearing clothes 4 sizes to big for them, then see these same kids in class and it breaks my heart.
The way my kids explain it is that EVERYONE has an iPhone and an iPad...whatever. All the kids are in hockey, take 5 dance classes and wear the MOST expensive clothes....whatever. I know that is not the case, and perhaps we just were all reminded of this fact, even me. Because the thing is, on this cold January day some people are planning their $50,000 Bar Mitzvah and others are worrying about how to get new shoes on their feet.
That's life.
I am not saying that we should all have the same things, live in the same houses and have the same luxuries in life, but I do think that I should be able to ask "where do you live?" and not break a kid's heart.
I know that there are so many people today that look at "a hand" as a "hand out" and that "everyone just needs to work as hard as I do to get ahead."....whatever. Because until you look into a kids eyes that doesn't have, you don't realize who you are speaking about. Until you look at the kid who doesn't have health insurance and is going to die, you don't know. Until you look at a kid at lunch and realize that every kid REALLY CAN'T afford a school lunch, you don't know.
The top 10% want the middle to feel as if they are living in the top 10%. YOU ARE NOT. If you are reading this, you are not the top 10%. You are not the elite and you are not rich. You may have a savings or a car or a house, but you are not even the upper middle class. And each and every time we stretch our arm out towards the bottom 30% we strengthen the top 10% even more...which is exactly what they want.
The top want us middle classes to fear helping and strengthening the bottom. The top wants us idiots to keep passing laws to strengthen the top because we WANT TO BE A PART OF THE TOP...but we are NOT THE TOP, trust me here. "Oh, yes, I am a Republican and want the rich to get richer....I am a part of the Grand Olde Party..." kill me now really...Grand Olde Party, do you know that is what GOP stands for?
The only way to strengthen ourselves, our economy, the middle, the people you see at PTA and the park, is to help the lower. To strengthen the whole, the have-nots and the bottom. Because when the bottom and middle grow, strengthen and help each other, and open our eyes to the top, we grow.
The bottom isn't necessarily the bottom because of bad work habits and drugs, the bottom is the bottom because we let there continue to be a bottom. If the middle, US, you and me, continues to be elitists and are delusional enough to believe we are somewhere EVEN NEAR THE TOP, we will continue to be falling closer and closer to the bottom.
We need to wake up and realize that the society we fear, we dislike, we want to shake our fingers at, are the same as you and I. They are not the drug pushing thug on the corner, they are the hard-working family that is killing themselves to get ahead,... and just lost their house.
I am not a "bleeding heart democrat liberal" I am a person that sees beyond what I have. I am a person that does not want to alienate myself from the lower to make myself PRETEND that I am a part of the upper. Because I am not. No matter how much STUFF I own, how many houses I have, how many vacations I go on, I am middle class...at best.
If we don't fix the bottom and middle, the top will continue to push. The top will continue to make us fear the "scum on the bottom that wants your money.." "the lower class that wants you to work work work so they can stay home on their cell phones driving BMW's" "the lower people that want to socialize America so they don't have to work." Trust me people, it is all scare, scare, scare. Don't you feel so elite when you think this way? Don't you feel so powerful with your job and college education while those "lowly people beg for health insurance....losers." That is what they want, they want the middle to fear, to feel like they are the top...that is what the top is betting on.
Keep approving the Right, keep pushing millionaires to get tax breaks...really? Are you that naive? I know millionaires, and you know what they do with their extra tax break money...they buy more shit. They go on more vacations and do more...they don't run out and create extra jobs...who are you kidding?
We need to take care of each other, the little people, the kids, the families, the uninsured. Stop the fear, stop the elitist mentality and work towards lifting up people, families, and communities. We need to fix from within so we do not implode from within. Get the top's foot of our head before we drowned.
We are not the top, YOU are not the top. Look out for each other, because maybe one day I will ask you where you live and your answer will be "nowhere," maybe that could be my answer one day.
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It was quickly explained to me that the person's home had been destroyed because of a faulty furnace. The person was without a home, thus the disgust from my family, as if I should have known. I felt so bad for this kid, but the fact is, how in the world was I suppose to know? How many people in a day do you ask, "where do you live?" and the answer is "nowhere!"
But the thing is, these days, I think that more and more people are answering, "nowhere." I think that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is moving farther and farther apart and is becoming more distinct.
Here in Jersey we have a very large Jewish population. In the Jewish culture there are Bat Mitzvah and Bar Mitzvahs. These are HUGE birthday-type parties that are celebrated when a child in the Jewish faith reaches the age of 13. I have been to one of these events and I could ONLY compare it to a wedding, a very lavish, country club, expensive wedding. How in the world these families afford these parties for each and every one of their kids is beyond me. I actually asked a Jewish mom the other day if they start a Bat Mitzvah savings account when the kid is born?!
I can't imagine shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a 13th birthday party, then college, then a wedding and all the other stuff in between! How do these people do it?
Then there are the kids that my children tell me about that don't have money for the shoes for sports, don't have money for the school t-shirt or all the other "extras" in life. I hear about the kids that are wearing clothes 4 sizes to big for them, then see these same kids in class and it breaks my heart.
The way my kids explain it is that EVERYONE has an iPhone and an iPad...whatever. All the kids are in hockey, take 5 dance classes and wear the MOST expensive clothes....whatever. I know that is not the case, and perhaps we just were all reminded of this fact, even me. Because the thing is, on this cold January day some people are planning their $50,000 Bar Mitzvah and others are worrying about how to get new shoes on their feet.
That's life.
I am not saying that we should all have the same things, live in the same houses and have the same luxuries in life, but I do think that I should be able to ask "where do you live?" and not break a kid's heart.
I know that there are so many people today that look at "a hand" as a "hand out" and that "everyone just needs to work as hard as I do to get ahead."....whatever. Because until you look into a kids eyes that doesn't have, you don't realize who you are speaking about. Until you look at the kid who doesn't have health insurance and is going to die, you don't know. Until you look at a kid at lunch and realize that every kid REALLY CAN'T afford a school lunch, you don't know.
The top 10% want the middle to feel as if they are living in the top 10%. YOU ARE NOT. If you are reading this, you are not the top 10%. You are not the elite and you are not rich. You may have a savings or a car or a house, but you are not even the upper middle class. And each and every time we stretch our arm out towards the bottom 30% we strengthen the top 10% even more...which is exactly what they want.
The top want us middle classes to fear helping and strengthening the bottom. The top wants us idiots to keep passing laws to strengthen the top because we WANT TO BE A PART OF THE TOP...but we are NOT THE TOP, trust me here. "Oh, yes, I am a Republican and want the rich to get richer....I am a part of the Grand Olde Party..." kill me now really...Grand Olde Party, do you know that is what GOP stands for?
The only way to strengthen ourselves, our economy, the middle, the people you see at PTA and the park, is to help the lower. To strengthen the whole, the have-nots and the bottom. Because when the bottom and middle grow, strengthen and help each other, and open our eyes to the top, we grow.
The bottom isn't necessarily the bottom because of bad work habits and drugs, the bottom is the bottom because we let there continue to be a bottom. If the middle, US, you and me, continues to be elitists and are delusional enough to believe we are somewhere EVEN NEAR THE TOP, we will continue to be falling closer and closer to the bottom.
We need to wake up and realize that the society we fear, we dislike, we want to shake our fingers at, are the same as you and I. They are not the drug pushing thug on the corner, they are the hard-working family that is killing themselves to get ahead,... and just lost their house.
I am not a "bleeding heart democrat liberal" I am a person that sees beyond what I have. I am a person that does not want to alienate myself from the lower to make myself PRETEND that I am a part of the upper. Because I am not. No matter how much STUFF I own, how many houses I have, how many vacations I go on, I am middle class...at best.
If we don't fix the bottom and middle, the top will continue to push. The top will continue to make us fear the "scum on the bottom that wants your money.." "the lower class that wants you to work work work so they can stay home on their cell phones driving BMW's" "the lower people that want to socialize America so they don't have to work." Trust me people, it is all scare, scare, scare. Don't you feel so elite when you think this way? Don't you feel so powerful with your job and college education while those "lowly people beg for health insurance....losers." That is what they want, they want the middle to fear, to feel like they are the top...that is what the top is betting on.
Keep approving the Right, keep pushing millionaires to get tax breaks...really? Are you that naive? I know millionaires, and you know what they do with their extra tax break money...they buy more shit. They go on more vacations and do more...they don't run out and create extra jobs...who are you kidding?
We need to take care of each other, the little people, the kids, the families, the uninsured. Stop the fear, stop the elitist mentality and work towards lifting up people, families, and communities. We need to fix from within so we do not implode from within. Get the top's foot of our head before we drowned.
We are not the top, YOU are not the top. Look out for each other, because maybe one day I will ask you where you live and your answer will be "nowhere," maybe that could be my answer one day.
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My Dearest Mammerith, you impress me every time I read your blog. Where did you get sooo schamart?
ReplyDeleteI like your views, your thoughts and you have your heart in the right place.
I am so impressed. Does your father know you’re a Conservative???
Keep up the good work, and never cease in reminding all of us, to try to be a good person, and when you can help others do it as soon as possible and if possible without thinking. Do it always for the right reason, not because it's cool. And yes, be thankful for being Middle Class, not ashamed. We can try to help everyone, but remember, not everyone wants help...Be like Jesus and love them all, we all want to be needed and loved by someone.
Be good Meredith and may the Lord take a liking to yah...
Steve Mathews
Thanks Steve! I greatly appreciate the comments and feedback. Truly it always amazes me when I write something, so many people read it and nobody has anything to comment..lol!
ReplyDeleteI'll take being middle class to the bank, if that is where I am fortunate enough to be headed.
Mer
Beneficial info and excellent design you got here! I want to thank you for sharing your ideas and putting the time into the stuff you publish! Great work!
ReplyDelete